I love the subtitle of this book: “I take shortcuts. I make the most of my supplies. I find significance in the everyday. I scrapbook my ordinary life.” The first two especially are something that almost every scrapbooker can relate to.

The design aesthetic of the layouts in this book, created by Cooper and a team of six contributors, are clean & simple.

The book is divided into four sections: Why, What, How & Real. To me, the first two sections (Why and What) are great eye candy but not incredibly (scrap) life-changing. But the How and Real sections are a whole different story. That’s where the real meat of Real.Life.Scrapbooking. is found.

Those two sections include some real constructive and solidly useful information. The “to-do” binder project on page 76 is the best idea I think I’ve seen for me to arrange my photos that I’ve had printed and am waiting to scrap. There are also time-saving photo and design tips and my favorite tips – how to extend kits to get the most out of them. This is taught through several actual examples of kits shown with examples of projects created from them. Then most of the final section is devoted to using schemes to save time, another of my favorite techniques. There are two full pages of schemes as well as a many examples of how to use them.

Real.Life.Scrapbooking. could be a great help for scrapbookers with a clean and simple style who want some tips and tricks for saving time and supplies.